A/N - I know everyone's chomping at the bit...I feel the same way. Here's how things get started.

Ethan felt like his mind was moving in slow motion. He thought he heard the guy with Conner's voice on the other end of the phone say he could make a storm, make it rain. But that didn't really make sense. He probably just thought he heard it because it was what he wanted to hear more than anything else.

"What?" Ethan asked.

There was a pause on the other end of the line as Eric tried to make sense of Ethan's question. He decided to skip the question and forge ahead. "Listen, I need to talk to Conner."

Wait, he's trying to change the subject…I can't let him do that. "No…go back to the making it rain thing." Ethan hated that he sounded so incoherent. He was trying to force his brain to get in gear, but it was not easy.

"I don't have time to talk about the weather!" cried Eric, "I need to talk to Conner."

"You can't, he's in the hospital." As soon as the words left his mouth, Ethan knew he should never have said them. But Eric wasn't reacting with surprise; in fact, he seemed more upset that his suspicions had been confirmed.

"How bad is it?" Eric asked grimly.

Ethan had finally reached a fully awake state. They were in a desperate situation and he was going to have to do some things that Dr. O probably wouldn't approve of. Talking honestly with Eric was the first one. "It's really bad." Ethan responded. "But I think there's a way to help." he immediately added.

"How? What do we do?"

Now that Ethan was fully awake ideas were spiraling through his mind. Faster and faster he was making connections, leaps of logic and intuiting information. All this time he's been racking his brain trying to figure out a way for the Dino Rangers to help Conner. He assumed that because their team was so closely connected in their triangle, that he and Kira would be the ones who should be able to help. But Conner was a unique part of their triangle because he didn't completely belong to them. He'd been part of a team even before he was born. Things were starting to make sense.

"How much do you know about what Conner does in his free time, Eric?"

Eric paused knowing it was a loaded question and Ethan could almost hear him thinking over the phone. That too made perfect sense to Ethan. He and Kira teased Conner a lot about having more brawn than brains – it was an unfair depiction of him, but one that he shrugged off with easy nonchalance. But what if he took the teasing in stride because he was perfectly comfortable with it? He didn't have to be the brainy one, the one with the plan or answer because he always knew that Eric would be there to do the heavy thinking.

"I know he spends a lot of time with you and Kira." came the response - the nice, safe, noncommittal response.

"Because he's a Power Ranger." Ethan stated flatly. Eric choked on the other end of the line. "Look, we don't have time to pretend you don't know what I'm saying. I think you're probably the last person on the planet Conner could keep a secret from." Even as the words came out of his mouth, Ethan knew them to be true.

"No, he can't keep a secret from me. He never could." Eric was still being somewhat evasive in his answers, but indirectly he confirmed what Ethan was saying.

Ethan took another leap from intuition to fact. As the pieces of the puzzle were falling together he could feel his excitement building. This could really be it! Eric is the key to saving Conner. I know it! "Eric, did you mean what you said about making it rain?"

Eric paused again before responding. Ethan could feel him thinking again. Please trust me he urged in his mind. Please trust me…without you I don't think this will work.

Eric was careful with how he phrased his answer. "I might be able to make it rain."

"Like a Thunder Ninja?" asked Ethan.

"What? How do you…?" was Eric's surprised response.

YES! Eric can get through to Conner AND help Hunter! SWEET! "Where are you?" Ethan demanded. "How far away from Reefside are you?" Ethan took a deep breath and organized his thoughts. "What I'm really asking is how long will it take you to send a storm this way? The storm that Hunter and Blake kicked up this morning is almost out of juice and we need another one right now!"

"Hunter and Blake? Bradley?" The mention of the Bradleys seemed to change something in Eric. He was no longer hedging or avoiding Ethan's questions. "I'm in Oregon. Making a storm here would do you no good. By the time it got down to Reefside it would've lost all of its power."

"So how long will it take you to get down here?" Ethan asked never doubting that Eric would do whatever he had to in order to get to Conner.

"I'm already on my way. I'll probably be there in less than an hour."

"Really?" Ethan was overwhelmed with relief. It never occurred to him to doubt Eric's word. No average citizen would be able to travel from somewhere in Oregon to Reefside, California in less than an hour – but Ethan had a growing suspicion that Eric was about as ordinary as his brother.

"I've been on the move since this morning. I knew something big had gone down. I've been trying to get in touch with Conner and my dad, but the storm down there knocked out so many power lines and the phones have been out."

"Do you know how to get to Reefside Hospital?"

"Yeah…spent lots of time there." Eric answered bitterly. Ethan recalled with a wince the story behind Conner's hospitalization there as a child.

"Okay. I'll get Kira. We'll meet you at the hospital – say, three-thirty, four o'clock? We'll be the ones in Yellow and Blue." he added with a grin.

"See you there. Ethan…?" Suddenly Eric seemed at a loss for words. But he didn't have to say anything – Ethan could read him loud and clear.

"He's gonna make it, Eric. We'll make sure of that. Just get here as fast as you can."

"'kay." With no further words, Eric was gone. Ethan sat on the floor at the foot of his bed for a quiet moment. His confidence was growing and he knew they were on the right track. Hunter and Conner just had to hold out long enough for Eric to arrive. They had a chance! Now all Ethan had to do was get past his parents.

TBC